U.S. patent number 6,494,532 [Application Number 08/951,347] was granted by the patent office on 2002-12-17 for soft-sculpted furniture.
This patent grant is currently assigned to J. Rhee Chuen. Invention is credited to Judith J. Brosnan, Scott T. Haugh.
United States Patent |
6,494,532 |
Brosnan , et al. |
December 17, 2002 |
Soft-sculpted furniture
Abstract
Soft-sculpted furniture, such as a chair, having unstructured
seat and back portions and two arm portions. The chair can be in
the form of a soft-sculpted animal or other figures or characters.
The arm portions are contoured to follow the contour of the seat
and back portions, are connected between the seat portion and back
portion, and are constructed so that the chair provides support for
a user in a seated upright position without the need for an
internal frame structure. The arm portions are configured to extend
outward when the chair is not in use to give the appearance of the
figure inviting the user to sit in the chair. The arms can be
wrapped around the user when in the chair and are wide enough to
cover a substantial portion of the user so as to serve as a blanket
or cover.
Inventors: |
Brosnan; Judith J. (Chicago,
IL), Haugh; Scott T. (Lockport, IL) |
Assignee: |
Chuen; J. Rhee (Chicago,
IL)
|
Family
ID: |
25491583 |
Appl.
No.: |
08/951,347 |
Filed: |
October 16, 1997 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
297/181;
297/452.17 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A47C
3/16 (20130101); A47D 15/006 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A47D
13/08 (20060101); A47D 13/00 (20060101); A47C
3/16 (20060101); A47C 3/00 (20060101); A63G
009/10 () |
Field of
Search: |
;D6/359
;297/181,464,487,488,256.15,452.17,452.41 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Nelson, Jr.; Milton
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Michael Best & Friedrich
LLC
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A soft-sculpted chair in the form of a character, the chair
comprising: a fabric shell sewn into a character form having a body
and arm portions, said body portion including a seat portion and a
back portion; and soft stuffing material held within said fabric
shell, said arm portions being connected to said seat portion and
said back portion for supporting said back portion in an upright
manner without the need for an internal support structure.
2. The soft-sculpted chair of claim 1 further comprising a base
portion held within said seat portion for maintaining the chair in
an upright position.
3. The soft-sculpted chair of claim 2, wherein said base portion
and said soft stuffing material are made of different
materials.
4. The soft-sculpted chair of claim 1 wherein said fabric shell
further comprises a head portion having a figure face.
5. The soft-sculpted chair of claim 1 wherein said arm portions are
connected to said back portion and said seat portion by sewing said
arm portions to said back portion and said seat portion.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to furniture. More particularly, the
present invention relates to soft-sculpted furniture which is
self-supporting.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Various car seats, chairs and chair covers have been proposed in
the shape of an animal or fictional character with limbs, such as
arms or legs, that wrap around and hug a child while in an upright
seated position. Many of the proposed devices fail to provide
adequate support and stabilization in supporting the child. In
order to add support, other devices have included a rigid internal
skeletal frame. However, rigid internal frames present an injury
risk for children using these devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,573, issued to Barry et al. discloses a child's
chair in the form of an animal. The chair includes a rigid frame
covered by a cushion in the form of an animal. The animal cushion
has a body with upper and lower limbs in the form of arms and legs.
The rigid frame includes structural members extending into the
arms. In the preferred embodiment of this patent, the cushion is in
the form of a bear with flexible arms that can be wrapped around a
child seated in the chair. Velcro patches on hands connected to the
arms allow the arms to be connected when encircled around the
seated child.
This and other prior art devices use some kind of structural member
or frame for stability, so that the device will have some degree of
rigidity. The prior art also includes so-called beanbag chairs or
the like, which are soft and pliable, but lack support to hold a
person in a generally upright seated position.
While the above-mentioned devices may be suited for their intended
usage, these devices do not provide a soft-sculpted chair with
provides sufficient stabilization to support a user in an upright
seated position without the use of an internal frame structure.
Thus, there is a need for a soft-sculpted chair which supports a
user in an upright seated position without using a rigid internal
frame structure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides soft-sculpted furniture, such as a
chair, which supports a user in an upright seated position without
the use of any internal frame structure. The chair comprises an
unstructured contoured seat portion, an unstructured contoured back
portion and a pair of contoured arm portions. The back portion is
connected to the seat portion to form the body of a soft-sculpted
figure such as an animal form. The seat contour includes a leg
support section for supporting a user's legs when seated in the
chair.
The arm portions are contoured to fit the contour of the seat
portion and back portion and are connected between the seat portion
and the back portion. The arm portions act to support the back
portion in an upright manner without the use of a rigid internal
support frame. Preferably, the arm portions extend and are
connected along at least one-half of the length of the seat portion
and at least one-half of the length of the back portion.
The seat portion, the back portion and the arm portions are filled
with a soft stuffing material. In a preferred embodiment, the seat
and back portions are filled with a polyester fiber material. The
arm portions are filled with bonded polyester sheets folded in such
a manner that the arm portions are configured to extend outward
when the chair is not in use giving the appearance that the
soft-sculpted figure is inviting the user to sit in the chair.
The arm portions are configured to be wrapped around the user when
the user is seated in the chair giving the appearance that the
soft-sculpted figure is hugging the user. The arm portions are wide
enough to cover a substantial portion of the user to act as a
blanket when wrapped around the user.
The chair includes a base portion in the seat portion for
maintaining the chair in an upright position. In a preferred
embodiment, the base portion is rectangular in shape to further
maintain the shape and structure of the chair.
The back portion of the chair includes a head portion having a
figure face. In one embodiment, the figure face is slightly turned
to one side so as not to interfere with a user's head or back when
seated in the chair. The chair can also include a tail, ears or
other ornamental features adding to the aesthetic qualities of the
soft-sculpted figure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a front, perspective view of a preferred embodiment of
the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the arm to chair Connection of
the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of the embodiment shown in FIG.
1 with a user seated in the chair;
FIG. 4 is a front perspective view of the embodiment shown in FIG.
3 with the figure's arms wrapped around the user;
FIG. 5 is a top view of a user seated in the embodiment shown in
FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the seat portion of the chair
shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of alternative soft-sculpted figure
embodiments according to the present invention; and
FIG. 8 is an exploded plan view of the material pattern of an arm
portion, back portion and seat portion of the embodiment shown in
FIG. 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring now to the drawings, a soft-sculpted furniture article,
such as a chair, according to the present invention is generally
designated 10. The chair 10 comprises an unstructured (having no
rigid internal frame structure) contoured seat portion 12, an
unstructured contoured back portion 14 and a pair of arm portions
16.
As shown in FIGS. 1 through 6 and 8, one embodiment of chair 10 is
soft-sculpted into the form of a leopard. Seat portion 12 and back
portion 14 are connected together to form the body of the leopard.
Seat portion 12 is contoured to include a leg support section 18
for supporting the user's legs when seated in the chair 10.
Arm portions 16 are connected to the seat portion 12 and back
portion 14. Arm portions 16 are contoured to fit the contour of the
seat portion 12 and back portion 14 and act to support a user in an
upright seated position without the need for a rigid internal frame
structure. As shown in FIG. 8, arm portions 16 have a connection
edge 20 which is contoured to follow the contours of the seat
portion 12 and back portion 14.
Preferably, the arm portions 16 extend and are connected along at
least one-half of the length of the seat portion 12 and at least
one-half of the length of the back portion 14. In the illustrated
embodiment, the arm portions 16 extend and are connected along
substantially the entire length of the seat portion 12 and back
portion 14.
In this manner, the arm portions 16 act as a sort of restraint on
the back portion 14 when pressure is applied to the back portion 14
by a user seated in chair 10. As pressure is applied to the back
portion 14 when the user reclines in the chair 10, the arm portion
16 supports the back portion 14 through the connection between the
back portion 14 and seat portion 12. The applied pressure is
distributed along line A-B in FIG. 8, on the length of the
connection edge 20 connected between the seat portion 12 and back
portion 14, providing support for the back portion 14 without the
need for an internal frame structure.
The seat portion 12, back portion 14, and arm portions 16 comprise
a fabric shell, stitched together from various patterns of fabric,
which is filled with a soft stuffing material. The shell stitching
and soft stuffing material provide the structure of the chair.
In the illustrated embodiment, the seat portion 12 and back portion
14 are filled with a polyester fiber material 15. The arm portions
16 are filled with bonded polyester sheets 17 folded in a manner
such that the arm portions 16 extend outward when the chair 10 is
not in use giving the appearance that the leopard figure is
inviting the user to sit in the chair 10 (FIG. 3). It is important
that an appropriate amount of arm stuffing material bonded
polyester sheets 17 is used in order to accomplish the open arms
appearance.
The arm portions 16 are configured to be wrapped around the user
when the user is seated in the chair 10, giving the appearance that
the leopard is hugging the user (FIG. 4). The arm portions 16 are
wide enough to cover a substantial portion of the user to act as a
blanket when wrapped around the user.
The back portion 14 of the chair 10 includes a head portion 22
having a figure face 24. As shown, for example in FIG. 5, the
figure face 24 is turned slightly to one side so as not to
interfere with the user's head or back when seated in the chair.
The chair 10 also includes other ornamental features such as ears
26 and a tail 28 completing the figure's appearance. While the
drawings show the chair 10 as having the appearance of a leopard,
other animals and characters are contemplated such as those shown
in FIG. 7.
Referring to FIG. 6, the seat portion 12 of the chair 10 includes a
base portion 30 for maintaining the chair 10 in an upright
position. In one embodiment, the base portion 30 comprises a solid,
rectangular-shaped piece of soft cushion material having a weight
substantially greater than the weight of the soft filling material
15. The base portion 30 further maintains the shape and structure
of the seat portion 12 of the chair 10.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications
may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the
invention. Accordingly, it is not intended that the invention be
limited except as may be necessary in view of the appended
claims.
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